Olympian and American pole vaulter Chris Nilsen chatted with Digital Journal’s Markos Papadatos about competing at the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, where he earned the silver medal for Team USA.
“It felt pretty good,” he admitted about his performance at the men’s pole vault final at the Tokyo Olympic Games. “We didn’t go in thinking that we were going to win a silver or anything, we went in to have fun. It turned out pretty well in the end. I am pretty happy about it.”
A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Nilsen cleared 5.97 meters on his first attempt in the men’s pole vault final, which secured him the silver medal.
When asked what he learned about himself through that process, he said, “Everything that we thought was impossible, ended up being possible in some way, shape, or form.”
“In my world, I won, because I knew that if I had to beat Mondo I would have to break my personal best, and I still broke my personal best and I came in second to Mondo. The dude is a force of nature, he always has been. Everybody was shooting for second, so I was pretty happy to get that spot,” he added.
On the title of the current chapter of his life, Nilsen responded, “We have arrived.” “Sam Kendricks would always tell me that you haven’t arrived in track and field unless you got a medal at an international championship, and we got the silver in the biggest major championship there is,” he said.
Nilsen defined the word success as “being able to continually prove myself.” “That’s the most important thing. I don’t want to get a silver medal at the Olympics and then the next year not do anything close to what I am doing now. I want to keep improving and to have a continuation of my success,” he said.
To learn more about Olympic silver medalist Chris Nilsen, follow him on Instagram.
